58 _Ecological Riverfront Design DESIGNING STREAM BUFFERS Riverfronts are exceptionally dificult areas in which to create vegetated buffers because of the need for water views and access, recreation, hardscape, park management, salty, rime prevention, and flood protection. Little ifany research exits on creating riverfront busfers in highly developed urban areas. In itis, buffer-sizing criteria may be based on ste conditions as ‘well as economic, legal, and ecological factors ‘Thomas Schueler ofthe Center for Watershed Protection offers eight performance criteria to determine the size, man- agement, and crossings of stream bulfers. These criteria were developed for creating bulfere in developing watersheds with new development on private land, They are offered here as a starting point for thinking about urban river- front buffers: 1 Three-zone buffer system: Effective urban stream buffers have three lateral zones—streamside, middle, and outer. Each performs different function and has a different width, vegetation goal, and management scheme, ‘The streamside zone, ideally mature riparian forest, protects the physical and ecological integrity ofthe stream ecosystem, ‘The middle zone, mature forest with some clearing for stormwater management, access, and recreational uses, extends from the streamsicie zone across the 100-year floodplain, adjacent steep slopes, and protected wetlands, and provides distance between the stream and upland development “The outer zome is the buer’s buller an additional 5-oot setback from the outer edge of the middle zone to the nearest perma- nent structure In parks or backyards, this buer zone can be expanded by replacing lawns with native trees and shrubs, Riparian Butter ‘ible de oe serdar Sits att ons ieee her are Placid tans ‘ie the (continued) riverfront on both sides of the Don, which is owned by the city and the province of Ontario, The plan focuses on cleaning up toxic land and water, instituting a $15-million flood-management plan, and selling some suit- able adjacent lands for mixed-use redevelopment. As part of the process, the Metropolitan Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, a regional government agency, has begun an environmental assessment of the riverfront land (Freeman 2002). Throughout the Port Lands, “green infrastructure” will provide a frame- work for redevelopment, restore biodiversity, create linkages for wildlife